Insights

Acquisition of First State Investments by Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation (MUTB)

First State Investments, the asset management business of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, is to be acquired by Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation (MUTB), subject to the necessary regulatory approvals. MUTB is one of Japan's leading asset managers and this move represents a move to grow its presence outside of its domestic market. First State Investments has a group of autonomous specialist investment teams, which includes Stewart Investors and First State Stewart Asia and our understanding is that MUTB will not be making any significant changes to the way these teams operate.

Therefore, we do not envisage any meaningful changes to the underlying investment teams following this acquisition and for the time being have decided to leave our ratings on the following funds unchanged: